Reclaiming the River

By Daniel Barbarisi

PROVIDENCE — The first time U.S. Sen. Jack Reed took a stroll along the Woonasquatucket River with environmental advocate Jane Sherman, Reed was skeptical.

Sherman looked past the shopping carts and tires clogging the river, and saw a potential paradise in the making.

“I was looking at her, saying, ‘Right, right,’ ” Reed said, his tone indicating that he was polite but cynical.

Now Reed is a true believer.

“Well, she was right — as were so many other visionaries,” he said.

Yesterday morning, Reed and more than 100 others joined to officially open the Rising Sun Fish Ladder, which will allow fish to swim past the Rising Sun dam and farther up the Woonasquatucket River to their traditional spawning grounds. It is part of a general reclamation of the river that has been under way for years, transforming it from a polluted, dead stream to a reviving river, one that has seen the return of spawning fish in the last few years.

The fish will only be able to move 500 feet up the river before they are blocked by another dam, but the opening of the ladder marks a huge symbolic victory in the renewal of the river, Reed said.

“Twenty years from now, this will mark a turning point,” Reed said.

This summer, work is expected to begin on removing or bypassing three more dams upriver, with the eventual goal of extending the run all the way to the Johnston border.

The Woonasquatucket begins in North Smithfield, at a small pond named Primrose, and travels 15 miles before it meets up with the Moshassuck River in downtown Providence. On its way, it travels through Smithfield, North Providence and Johnston, and then snakes its way through the west side of Providence, winding through the Manton, Hartford, Olneyville and Valley neighborhoods before reaching downtown.

Fish like the alewife, blueback herring, and the American shad return to the freshwater river each spring to spawn, and the young live in the river until the fall. Then they leave the river for the salt waters of the Atlantic Ocean, where they can be found all along the Eastern seaboard. As the fish slowly returned to a cleaner Woonasquatucket after decades away, they have been blocked from much of their spawning ground by the old dams. Some of the dams — which once powered the mills that lined the river, are in poor condition, and are scheduled to be removed. But others, like the Rising Sun dam, are reasonably intact, and so a fish ladder alongside the dam was seen as a viable, and aesthetically pleasing, solution.

The river rushing over the dam, surrounded by trees, has helped developer Struever Bros. Eccle & Rouse partner Fred Struever to forget he’s in the middle of a major city, since the company came to Providence several years ago.

“It’s my favorite place. Whenever I drive up from Baltimore, I always come to the river first, because it’s so relaxing. It’s very rare to get this ambience in the middle of the city.”

The ladder itself resembles a double winder staircase, with an entrance near the base of the dam and egress at the top. These fish are not jumpers, so the 140-foot ladder’s “steps” rise slowly and incrementally to allow fish to move up gradually.

Unfortunately, the fish that clear the ladder will next run into the Paragon Mills dam, 500 feet farther upstream. But that dam is slated to be removed, starting this summer, which should allow fish access to 40 acres of new breeding grounds. And it should help with the persistent floods that plague residents. Farther upstream, the Atlantic Mills dam, the Dyerville dam and the Manton dam are all targeted for either removal or fish-ladder projects starting this year, which will give fish a clear path to the Johnston border.

Changes in federal financing have threatened similar projects nationwide, but the money for this dam work is assured, said Gary Mast, U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy undersecretary for natural resources and environment, who was on hand yesterday for the ladder’s opening.

“Money is in place. That work is going to take place even though there is a change in [the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program] and the farm bill,” Mast said.

The $465,000 Rising Sun Fish Ladder project was sponsored and financed by multiple sources, including $315,000 from the Department of Agriculture, and contributions from the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse and the Armory Revival Company, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Environmental Management, the Coastal Resources Management Council and the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, also in attendance yesterday, recalled times when he had canoed on the polluted Woonasquatucket and envisioned a not-so-far-away future when residents enjoying the waters would be commonplace.

“It’s a surprisingly beautiful run through the canyons of Providence,” Whitehouse said of a trip down the river. Soon, he said, he hopes that everyone can enjoy the “unusual and surprisingly beautiful vistas Rhode Island’s rivers have to offer.”

Water flows down the Rising Sun Fish Ladder on the Woonasquatucket River in Providence, where a ceremony was held yesterday marking its completion. The ladder for migratory fish will help link Narragansett Bay with the upper reaches of the river. At left, Juliet Lipsky, 3, being held by her father, Andy, watches the water streaming past. The Providence Journal Andrew Dickerman

At the conclusion of a ceremony marking the completion of the fish ladder on the Woonasquatucket River, a crowd gathers at the top to watch the water as it rushes down. At left, developer Fred Struever speaks during the ceremony. “Whenever I drive up from Baltimore, I always come to the river first, because it’s so relaxing,” he said. The Providence Journal Andrew Dickerman

dbarbari@projo.com / (401) 277-8062

Originally published by Daniel Barbarisi, Journal Staff Writer.

(c) 2008 Providence Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.